


insult to injury (to flower arrangement)

by amako



Category: Naruto
Genre: Courtship, F/F, Language of Flowers, Multi, Polyamory, Pre-Relationship, Romance, Women Being Awesome, smiling Sasuke cameos, this is all ilah's fault, this is very gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 14:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14717471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amako/pseuds/amako
Summary: On Sakura's door step, there is a bouquet of flowers.





	insult to injury (to flower arrangement)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theformerone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/gifts).



> I literally have zero excuse for this. I'm just gay. That's it.

It starts with flowers.

Which, in itself, is mildly disappointing because if there's one thing Ino knows about, it's flowers. And whoever made that arrangement is sorely lacking. Unless they're trying to threaten her and insult her at the same time (with flowers?!) then they simply couldn't have meant _Beware, A Foe is Nearby, Stupidity, Submission, Victory in Battle._ And the arrangement is frankly horrendous.

Ino ignores the flowers and goes on with her life. Her application for a T&I internship still hasn't received any answer and she's slightly worried. On top of that, Sakura is off on a mission, which means no comfort food, no endless supplies of alcohol and no sex.

She's on her way to the Akimichi's Compound when she's stopped by a courier, probably a genin on her first mission. The girl is carrying a bouquet, almost a perfect copy of the previous one except that _You have disappointed me_ has been added. And attached to the flowers, the same way a card would be, is a letter from T &I saying she got the internship.

Ino thanks the genin absent-mindedly, a buzzing in her mind preventing her from fully grasping that someone is telling her she's an idiotic failure who might be attacked soon and _also you're a bottom_ while giving her good news.

So she keeps going until she reaches Chōji's apartment, gives him the flowers because some of them are actually pretty good in a salad and then proceeds to scream excitedly about the internship for an hour or so.

Her friend looks delighted for her while munching on _Victory in Battle_. She takes it as the good sign that it is.

 

Ibiki is nice.

(she doesn't mean to say that while Sakura has her mouth between Ino's legs but she's a bit distracted and the thought just popped into her head _don't blame her okay_ )

She's two weeks into her internship and no one is giving her a hard time. If anything, Ino is actually surprised at how mindful everyone is of explaining everything to her and making sure she sees the therapist in the evening to talk about what she did in the day.

Well, Anko is a bitch but in a I-was-traumatized-as-a-child way and Ino is nothing if not understanding because she's sleeping with Haruno Issues Sakura and she deals with this shit on a daily basis.

(she's been in that girl's head and it's an absolute mess, without even accounting for the fucking _second personality_ )

But Ibiki is nice and Ino is enjoying her new job and the responsibilities that go with it. She's enjoying the Yamanaka Council a little less.

The fuckers still aren't over that she refused the nice title of pretty-face-kunoichi which would have kept her of harm's way. Or at least, their vision of harm's way because Ino has seen what mission rape does to shinobi and she would _not_ have come out of that unscathed.

The Yamanaka Council is old-fashioned and psycho-rigid, but they have nothing on the Hyūga or the Aburame so Ino counts her blessings.

It does mean she's had a shitty day when she leaves the office without seeing Ibiki once, enduring Anko's bitching and then dealing with the Council's bullshit. She goes straight to Sakura's flat, in hopes of a distraction, gossip, or at list some descent sake.

On Sakura's door step, there is a bouquet of flowers.

This time, it says nothing about her supposedly sexual preferences, and instead implies that yes, people are still after her (what the fuck) but also _Gay Life_ , _Mature Charm_ and _Mortality._

Ino simply picks the flowers calling her an old lesbian and puts them in a vase. The flat is dark and cold, which is disappointing, but Sakura has a weird mission schedule now that she's complying to Sasuke's desperate attempts to make friends with her.

(that means, in Uchiha fashion, going on gruesome missions together until they have to drag each other bloody and missing body parts)

(surprisingly, it seems to work, if the occasional genuine smile spotted on Sasuke's face when he sees Sakura is anything to go by)

 

Sakura comes home at three in the morning, exhausted and smelly, missing a front tooth and grinning through the blood. Ino sighs, patches her up and makes her sleep on the couch because damn it, those post-mission jitters are unbearable.

But then it all goes to shit, because Sakura spots the flowers.

 

“Ino?”

“What, now? Won't you _please_ go to sleep?” Yes, she's annoyed. It's four in the morning, so sue her.

“Why is Hinata sending you flowers?”

Ino does a double take. “I'm sorry, what now?”

“These! Did you go to the annual Hyūga celebration? It was last week, wasn't it?”

 

Actually, Ino did go, but she was hidden behind an approved fake ANBU mask for some mild information gathering. Sakura isn't supposed to know that, so she simply shakes her head.

 

“I found them at the front door. It's the third bouquet I get.”

Sakura frowns. “That's weird.”

“How do you figure they're Hinata's?”

Sakura shrugs, pointing at the flowers in turn. “Well, the purple and white are the colour scheme she picked for her introduction as Hanabi's heiress , which is a pretty big deal because it means she has to dress in those colours for every official outing. Orchids are also the Hyūga's symbol.”

 

Ino stares at the bouquet. Then stares some more.

 

“I thought whoever sent this was insulting me.”

Sakura looks at her with a smile, before pinching her cheek. “Dearest Pig, you are a dumbass. Maybe you should calm down on the _underneath the underneath_ , don't you think?”

“Shut up, Forehead. I had to shove my hand down your pants for you to understand that I wanted into them.”

 

Sakura snorts, trying for dignity and failing. She looks back at the flowers, a small pout on her lips, like she's considering something.

 

“You know, the twelve are aware that you're poly.”

“... yeah? What does that have to do with anything.”

Sakura shrugs. “Well, I'm just saying. Hinata is sending you flowers with her colours. As far as Hinata goes, it kinda looks like she's shoving her hand down your pants to me.”

 

Ino stares back at the orchid, something warm twisting in her chest.

 

“Uh.”

“Yeah, uh. Now I believe I was promised a couch. Wanna share?” she grins, patting the space besides her.

“Yeah,” Ino says softly, picking up a sakura flower from the bouquet and twirling it between her fingers. “Actually, I'd really like to share.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know shit about flowers so I took everything from the first site that came up when I typed 'language of flowers'. In no particular order, the bouquets contain grass, orchids, peony, monkshood, nasturtium, carnation, geranium and sakura flowers.
> 
> (yes Hinata is in fact making a pass at both Ino and Sakura, though she's more subtle about Sakura because only Ino is out as poly and Hinata doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings)


End file.
